“Wario Land: Shake It! is a game that everyone from veterans to newcomers can enjoy,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Partnering with Six Flags to bring the title to theme parks nationwide is a great opportunity for consumers to experience the game and rediscover the franchise at a place that is designed for fun.”

But wait, there's more! Six Flags Magic Mountain near LA and Six Flags St. Louis will be hosting speed contests on the 27th, with the fastest overall time winning a trip to New York to visit the Nintendo World Store, while the speediest at each part wins a DS, a copy of the game, and a gift certificate for Six Flags junk! I can barely stand the excitement! Press release, take us home.

Nintendo’s Famous Anti-Hero, Wario, Invades Six Flags This Summer

Theme Parks’ Guests to Experience Wario Land: Shake It!’s Game-Play Features and Compete for Prizes

REDMOND, Wash.—(BUSINESS WIRE)— Nintendo and its favorite antagonist, Wario™, have teamed up with Six Flags to take over 10 theme parks throughout the country this September. In celebration of the release of Wario Land™: Shake It!, the new game for the Wii™ console, Nintendo will be giving park guests the opportunity to check out the game and win prizes.

Wario Land: Shake It! plays like a classic side-scroller, but incorporates motion-controlled elements: Players shake the Wii Remote™ controller to help Wario shake down enemies for coins or tilt it to help him decide where to toss them. The game launches exclusively for Wii on Sept. 22.

“Wario Land: Shake It! is a game that everyone from veterans to newcomers can enjoy,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Partnering with Six Flags to bring the title to theme parks nationwide is a great opportunity for consumers to experience the game and rediscover the franchise at a place that is designed for fun.”

As part of the theme park takeover, Wario Land: Shake It! game-play interactives will be available at the 10 Six Flags parks’ Wii Experience areas to allow Wario fans and park guests the chance to experience the game first-hand and reconnect with the long-running Wario franchise.

In addition, on Sept. 27, Nintendo will host a competition at two Six Flags locations: Six Flags Magic Mountain near Los Angeles and Six Flags St. Louis. Running concurrently at both parks, competitors will play through a level in Wario Land: Shake It! as fast as they can, just as Wario must race through various levels in the game. At the end of the competition, the player with the best overall time will be Nintendo’s guest on a holiday trip to New York and a visit to the Nintendo World store. In addition, one person at each park with the best overall time will win a “Bottomless Coin Sack” containing:

* a Wii system and a copy of Wario Land: Shake It!
* a Nintendo DS™ system
* a gift certificate for Six Flags merchandise
* fun premium items

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

For more information about Wario Land: Shake It!, visit www.WarioLandShakeIt.com.

Participating Parks and dates include:

* Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson, N.J.) – 9/27-28, 10/4-5, 10/11-12
* Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, Calif.) - 9/27-28, 10/4-5, 10/11-12
* Six Flags Great America (Gurnee, Ill.) - 10/4-5, 10/11-12
* Six Flags Over Texas (Arlington, Texas) - 9/27-28, 10/4-5, 10/11-12
* Six Flags Over Georgia (Austell, Ga.) - 9/27-28, 10/4-5, 10/11-12
* Six Flags Fiesta Texas (San Antonio, Texas) - 10/4-5, 10/11-12
* Six Flags New England (Agawam, Mass.) - 9/27-28, 10/4-5, 10/11-12
* Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Vallejo, Calif.) - 9/27-28, 10/4-5, 10/11-12
* Six Flags America (Bowie, Md.) - 10/4-5, 10/11-12
* Six Flags St. Louis (Eureka, Mo.) - 9/27-28, 10/4-5, 10/11-12

Starting this week Nintendo and Six Flags are giving out a Wii a week for 16 weeks.

While the two would like you to join Six Flags fan club, Team Six, you don't have to, to enter. You just need to be 13, live in the US and send off a letter to the address listed on the contest page.

Get to it. Brian Crecente

Official Rules [Six Flags]

If I were the king of the world, I'd make sure that any sort of unholy alliance between Six Flags and Nintendo would, least they be smote by me, be all about a Nintendo-themed park with Super Mario Bros. roller coasters, Mario Kart bumper cars, Yoshi licking machines. Umm, well you get the idea.

Unfortunately, I am not the king of the world, so the deal that Six Flags and Nintendo just cut is essentially a chance for Nintendo to cram more wii down your throat via theme-park placed Wii kiosks. Great, because that's what theme parks need more of.. lines.

Here's there spin:

Six Flags (NYSE: SIX) and Nintendo of America today announced a sponsorship and marketing agreement under which the Wii video game system will be the Official Gaming Console of Six Flags parks and Six Flags will offer complimentary game-playing at Wii Gaming Stations throughout select Six Flags-branded theme parks. In addition, the companies will collaborate on marketing initiatives, including a national sweepstakes promotion for Six Flags on Nintendo.com.

More PR babble after the jump. Brian Crecente

NEW YORK, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Six Flags (NYSE: SIX) and
Nintendo of America today announced a sponsorship and marketing agreement
under which the Wii video game system will be the Official Gaming Console
of Six Flags parks and Six Flags will offer complimentary game-playing at
Wii Gaming Stations throughout select Six Flags-branded theme parks. In
addition, the companies will collaborate on marketing initiatives,
including a national sweepstakes promotion for Six Flags on Nintendo.com.
Nintendo's new Wii system became one of the hottest gifts this holiday.
Consumers purchased more than a million Wii consoles in just the 44 days
between U.S. launch and year end — which represented every Wii console
available at retail. As its popularity reflects, Nintendo's unique system
brings gaming to the masses by providing something for everyone, from the
most seasoned gamer to those experiencing video games for the first time.
"This agreement with Nintendo enables us to partner with a company, and
a product, that has major relevance in the lives of today's families. When
this audience is not in our parks, more often than not they are at home
playing video games — and now they can do both in one place as we continue
to build Six Flags into a supermarket of entertainment," said Mark Shapiro,
Six Flags President and CEO. "This alliance further illustrates our intent
to partner with trusted and valued consumer brands that will increase our
touch points and expand our reach."
"We look forward to continuing to build the Wii's leadership position
in video gaming by making the system available to millions of guests who
visit Six Flags every year," said Perrin Kaplan of Nintendo America. "The
Wii system is dedicated to reaching a broad audience, and we look forward
to sharing the ultimate gaming system with Six Flags guests beginning in
2007."
Six Flags, Inc., founded in 1961, is the world's largest regional theme
park company. Six Flags, Inc. is a publicly-traded corporation (NYSE: SIX)
headquartered in New York City.
The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment,
Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and
software for its Wii(TM), Nintendo DS(TM), Game Boy(R) Advance and Nintendo
GameCube(TM) systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.2 billion
video games and more than 387 million hardware units globally, and has
created industry icons like Mario(TM), Donkey Kong(R), Metroid(R),
Zelda(TM) and Pokemon(R). A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America
Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's
operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo,
visit the company's Web site at http://www.nintendo.com.

You have to be 18 or older, and you'll have to pay whatever admission fees Six Flags usually charges. Are we going to go? Probably not. Should you go and then write in to tell us what you thought? Absolutely. Should Six Flags spell the name of the band correctly in the headline? You bet. Jason Chen

Press Release [GamerScoreBlog via GamerScoreBlog]